FINE Workforce Dev White Paper

INTRODUCTION
High Mowing Seeds at the Vermont Food Venture Center
The US food manufacturing sector has been
expanding since the end of the recession. The
number of food manufacturing establishments
has increased by nearly 13% since 2010, and
employment grown by 5%, an addition of
nearly 80,000 jobs (BLS). At the same time,
several national trends are converging that
make finding and retaining the right workforce
for the expansion of food manufacturing
increasingly challenging. First, much of the
work is becoming increasingly technical and
specialized. In the wake of the Food Safety
Modernization Act (signed into law by president Obama in 2011; see companion paper Food Safety
Regulation: An Introduction for Entrepreneurs) a detailed understanding of food safety, recordkeeping,
and process controls have become more important than ever before. Similarly, efficiencies of scale
are continuing to drive automation of many production processes, prompting the need for workers
adept at learning and using new technology. Second, the aging of the baby boomer generation (the
post-war demographic bump of those born between 1946 and 1964) underlies the shift to an older
US workforce. Sometimes dubbed the “silver tsunami” (Schumpeter) this sea change is currently well
under way. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers 55 years or older made up only 13% of
the US workforce in 2010, but that number is projected to nearly double, to 25% by 2020 (Mitra, p56).
Finally, manufacturers face a decreased pipeline of qualified candidates entering the industry.
Major Workforce Pressures Facing the Food Manufacturing Sector
Public colleges, one critical piece of workforce
development infrastructure, illustrate part of the
pipeline challenge: according to the Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities almost all states are spending less
per student than before the recession, typically much
less. Their research found that “the average state
is spending $1,805, or 20 percent, less per student
than it did in the 2007-08 school year” (Mitchell and
Leachman). Not surprisingly, many colleges have
responded by raising tuition: “annual published tuition
at four-year public colleges has risen by $2,068, or
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: A CHALLENGING OPPORTUNITY
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